Born 1961 Kansas City, MO; resides in Seattle

Wheeler was born in 1961 in Kansas City, MO and raised in Ralston, Nebraska, a suburb of Omaha. Wheeler came to the Northwest (via California) as a young adult. She gravitated to Seattle in 1981 and then Olympia in 1985 for higher education as a painter and then, almost by chance, as a photographer. When Wheeler left Evergreen State College with a BA degree in 1988, she began a serious career as a photographer with an exhibit at the Mazey Hickey Gallery in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle. Wheeler has shown numerous times at various Seattle galleries since then, and, most notably, in a group show entitled “Hereabouts,” curated by Trevor Fairbrother, at the Seattle Art Museum. Her work is in the public collections of The Henry Gallery at the University of Washington, and The Experience Music Project.

Wheeler’s photographs have been published in news magazines such as Newsweek, Time, and Life as well as music magazines such as Rolling Stone, Mojo or Spin and alternative lifestyle journals such as Out. Wheeler’s photographs have illustrated various books covering the Seattle rock scene, such as Rolling Stone’s Women in Rock (1998). She was featured in Nick Broomfield’s controversial documentary film “Kurt and Courtney.” Several of Wheeler’s photographs are included in Heavier Than Heaven, the best selling biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles Cross.

OUTCASTS AND INNOCENTS: Photographs of the Northwest
by Alice Wheeler

Read more about the book and purchase here.

EDUCATION

B.A., The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA

ONE–PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2009

Women are Beautiful, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle

2003

Kurt Cobain: Toward Nirvana, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle

2002

All About Evil, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle

2000

Reunion, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle

1999

David Leonardis Gallery, Chicago

1997

Mazey Hickey Gallery, Seattle

That was Then, This is Now: The Life of John Buchanan, Vox Populi, Seattle 1994

Mad Life, Vox Populi, Seattle

1993

View From Nowhere, Several Thoughts Gallery, Seattle

1989

Portraits from the Panic Zone, Pick-Me-Up Gallery, Los Angeles

The Innocents, Mazey Hickey Gallery, Seattle 1988

Bedlam in Belltown, Mazey Hickey Gallery, Seattle

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2008

The Sounds I See: Photographs of Musicians, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, curated by Clinton Willour

2007

Sparkle, then Fade, Tacoma Art Museum, curated by Rock Hushka

2005

Celebrity Skin, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle

Money, Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, Port Angeles, WA

Documentary Stories: Experiencing the Northwest Folklife Festival, Seattle

2004-05

Lewis and Clark Territory: Contemporary Artists Revisit Place, Race and Memory, Tacoma Art Museum, traveled to Yellowstone Art Museum, Bozeman, MT; The Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia (catalog)

2004

Possessed, Western Bridge, Seattle, WA

Interiores-Exteriores, Fototeca de Cuba, Havana, Cuba

2003

J. Steensma: A Retrospective, Whatcom Museum of Art, Bellingham, WA

More Noise Please: A Portrait of Poet Steven Jesse Bernstein, Experience Music Project, Seattle

2000

Language Let Loose, Seattle Art Museum

Hereabouts: Northwest Pictures By Seven Photographers, Seattle Art Museum

WTO: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, The Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle

1999 –00

Hereabouts: Northwest Pictures by Seven Photographers, Seattle Art Museum

Take My Picture, The Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle

Northwest Annual, Center on Contemporary Arts, Seattle

Family Matters, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle

1995

Northwest Noir, Vox Populi, Seattle

1992

From Media to Metaphor: Art about AIDS, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle

1992

Carnival Culture, Seattle Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery, Seattle

Queer Bodies: An International Photography Show on Sexual Identity, The Evergreen State College Gallery, Olympia, WA (catalog)

1991

Celebrations and Ceremonies, Security Pacific Gallery, Seattle

Fifty Years of Seattle Photography, Bumbershoot Arts Festival, Seattle

New Year/New Work, Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle

1990

Never Before Funded, Bumbershoot Arts Festival, Seattle

1989

Civilization Part 2, 911 Media Arts Center, Seattle

Northwest Annual, Center on Contemporary Arts, Seattle

1988

Hey, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA

AWARDS

First Place: Photo Essay Category, Western Washington Excellence in Journalism Competition, Society for Professional Journalists, 1999

COLLECTIONS

The Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington

The Experience Music Project, Seattle

Seattle Art Museum

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS: MAGAZINES

Newsweek

Time

Life

Art in America

New Art Examiner

Rolling Stone

Spin

Entertainment Weekly

Parade

Out

Newsweek Japan

No Depression

Q

Rock Sound

Huh

European

Seattle Weekly

Los Angeles Weekly

San Francisco Bay Guardian